Baze On Roll as Golden Gate Summer Meet Opens

Jockey Russell Baze, who capitalized on a slew of live mounts to run away with the riding title at the Sonoma County Fair meeting in Santa Rosa, hopes to keep on rolling Aug. 15 when Golden Gate Fields opens its brief summer meeting.

Baze rode two winners on closing-day program at Santa Rosa Aug. 10 to finish the 13-day stand with 23 victories. Thirty-five of Baze’s 71 mounts at Santa Rosa were favored in the wagering, and Baze won with 17 of those favorites.

Golden Gate Fields kicks off its 19-day meeting with an eight-race card Friday. Post time is 3:45 p.m. PDT and Baze is scheduled to ride seven horses, including four morning-line favorites: Blue Blizzard (6-5) in the first race, Hevenhelpher (7-5) in the second, Babe's Journey (9-5) in the third, and Top Tizzy (7-5) in the fifth.

A Hall of Fame member and the world’s winningest jockey with 12,338 career victories, Baze celebrated his 56th birthday on Aug. 7.

The summer meeting runs through Sept. 14. Although post time opening day and the subsequent two Fridays (Aug. 22 and 29) is 3:45 p.m., the standard post time is 1:45 p.m.

There will be special racing cards Sept. 1 (Labor Day), and Sept. 3 (closing day at Del Mar).

The $50,000 Rolling Green Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up, is the main event at the summer session and will be run on Labor Day.